Tag: Fish

If you have a computer hooked up to the internet, you’ve seen Robert Lawler’s photo sometime in the past month. He caught a massive sunfish – a redear that weighs over five pounds – and people who don’t even get that excited about fishing have been forwarding that photo all over. It’s made the rounds on every fishing forum, sites like Go Fish’n and of course lots and lots of love on Facebook. The best thing about it is that the guy who caught it is just a guy like you or me, just somebody who likes to fish. His name is Bob Lawler and he’s from Lake Havasu City, Arizona – we tracked him down and got him to join us for today’s Fish Schtick!

After a couple of weeks off, we needed to catch up. With Memorial Day Weekend ahead, we wanted to reflect on some of our favorite fishing trips and outdoor adventures in the past couple of years, too.

My buddy Robert Holt doesn’t really go by Robert Holt that I know of. He goes by BBT, which is short for Bobby Brown Trout. He’s a funny dude. He’s got more energy than a 6 year old with a fist full of pixie sticks. He’s a bona fide Montana trout bum but he came up with this little gadget – The Shark Tooth – and it’s caught on like crazy. He’s done all kinds of interesting things in his life, and – like I said – he’s a real character. You’ll enjoy today’s show, trust me on this.

Lawrence Euteneier is an interesting dude. He’s an accomplished fisherman. He’s a handyman and a dad. He’s on a dragon boat racing team. He invented the world’s first computer – Web4All – that automatically accommodates special requirements of its user. He’s an adventurer – he was in the first ever canoe expedition from Toronto to Prince Edward Island, that’s over 1,000 miles. Oh yeah … and he’s blind.

Travis Lowe is a TV production guy from Canada. Got his start running a camera for his Dad’s Friday night music show on the local cable access channel. Did some work in corporate video, which killed his soul, and he moved on to TV news. Today he’s teaching digital cinematography and running a documentary production company.

When you hear about a “professional angler” you probably think about a pro bass guy. Maybe … maybe … a pro walleye guy. But a pro crappie guy? Yep. There are a few, and the man who piloted that is Wally Marshall. Back in the 1980’s Wally Marshall won a professional crappie tournament, started garnering sponsorship support, and became the face and name behind crappie fishing around the world.

It’s been too long since we did a show so this is kind of a catch-up episode. The focus is the Bassmaster Classic where we saw Kevin Van Dam and Aaron Martens make history, but more than anything else, we haven’t gotten together for a couple of weeks so it’s time to get caught up.

It’s a very special episode of The Fish Schtick – one have looked forward to since last year’s Ice Fishing Spectacular. That’s right! This is the 2011 Ice Fishing Spectacular episode, and have we got some great guests for you?

Today’s Fish Schtick is a special episode for Stewardship. Things like catch and release and selective harvest have caught on, for the most part, but our waters are still in a lot of trouble. In fact, if you ask the US EPA – and we did – they’ll tell you that of our fresh and inshore salt waters, about half – 49% – is so polluted that it can’t support a healthy fishery. Is unsafe for drinking. Is not recommended for swimming. Half. Half our waters in America. This is not a third world country, this is America. And that may be the problem. What’s going in our waters has to do with our everyday choices, because our lifestyle runs downstream. But our waters also reflect our value system and in America, too often, it’s about getting mine, going bigger, better and faster. The good news is that our waters can be made healthy again, but it takes all of us working together and that takes not just sportsmen, but stewards. We’ll hear from three leaders in stewardship today – Zach Porter from All Against the Haul, Leah Elwell from Clean Angling, and Mike and I interview our own Brian Bennett who sits on the board of the Wild Steelhead Coalition.

Thad Robison has joined us before on The Fish Schtick, and when we have a guest back, you know they must be good. He’s one of the people who makes the Fly Fishing Film Tour possible, but he’s also on the road right now for Motiv Fishing. They’re a crew of adventurers who are filming their exploits in a series called Geofish. Thad is currently in the midst of an epic 8,000 mile fly fishing expedition from Oregon to the Yucatan Peninsula.